More time to myself

Weight: 106.9kg

Its been like 3 weeks to the day I started my diet change and workouts. The changes to my body is nice. Not only am I constantly dropping weight, I am also dropping inches off my waistline.

Every week, I would retire some clothes and take out the smaller sizes which couldn't fit just months before.  First, its a nice feeling, second, at least my wardrobe is changing lol.

Stamina, strength and flexibility is up..  not yet back to my usual self, but I feel we are almost there. For one thing, I KNOW my speed is back up..  which will lead to more explosiveness, more strength and definitely lead to more speed. Ahhh.. that is a good feeling.

In the beginning, I guess no one gave me a second glance at Evolve as I began my Muay Thai training as a level 1 beginner. 3 weeks later, yesterday at training, I got this suspicious feeling I was being quietly observed by the trainers. (For what? I don't know..  but I definitely got their attention)

Ever since my mother passed away, Pamela has been wanting more time to herself and her friends, my kids are all grown up. They want to be independent. My youngest one seems frustrated I am tagging along to her ballet lessons... my eldest one would like more time to go out on her own.

Sigh. Nobody needs me around anymore.

For almost 24 years, I have build my activities and life around my family. I keep thinking that if my kids would leave the fold sooner or later (I hope later..  but argh), I would still have my wife by my side. But boy was I wrong, now everybody has their own lives to live. And I am getting depressed.

Well, depressed and happy. Oxymoron. At least I have time now to go back to training for myself. My favouritest outfit in the entire universe... my karate gi. I have finally shrunk back to a size where I can wear it comfortably again. Not to mention my kuro obi. THE belt which is 22 years old :)

Once I think I look more like my former self in my go, I will post another picture of it here.  Unless depression gets the better of me and I kinda die. Then you will still see me in my gi, except it will be in a casket.  Yeah.. I hope my wife remembers that I specifically ask to be cremated in my karate gi.

Ex-wife, ex-kids, all these are no longer important. What matters is how to move on from here.

We shall see.

...we shall see

~CJ

Working Out Everyday :P

Weight: 108.5kg

Waist: Down

Strength: Up

Stamina: Up

Energy Level: Up

Ahhhhh Enough said. :P


~CJ

I have EVOLVED!

Weight: 109.8kg

First and foremost I would like to state..  never in my life would I ever want to see 110+ kg again.

Next target is double digit weight. We shall see. :P

Anyhoo... I have finally caved in and evolved. When I say evolved, I mean every sense of the word. Evolve Mix Martial Arts Academy is the place where I am pursuing my next level of martial skills. First I am going to continue my training in Muay Thai and then either I continue my Judo training or perhaps hop on the Brazilian Ju-Jitsu wagon. I know I know.. its late in the day for me to hop on, but at least I am not entirely missing out on the train.

My stand up game is so far ok, with Karate and now Muay Thai.. my ground game however, leaves a lot to be desired.  Judo being the only martial arts I know and not very good at that, I will be supplementing it with BJJ I suppose. However, I do have a few doubts, which I have to face before I can fully commit to training.

Evolve, Shinyuu Kai Karate dojo, Shitoryu Karate Association and Singapore Judo Club. Of course, how I can I forget Rawai Muay Thai, Khao Lak. :) Ahh the memories...  So far these are the 5 places I have been to and will go and continue my martial education.

Before I get carried away and blog too much banter and no real info. I will just stop here to make sure my blog gets on record of my progress back to fitness and upgrading of my skill sets.

Till next time :P

~CJ

Sawadee Krap!!

Weight: 112kg

Hello from sunny and often humid Thailand!

My fellow trainees and I have gotten to calling this place "The Constant Land of the 

Sweat"

Why? Because we are always sweating..   really..  constantly sweating. We sweat when we train, when we eat, when we walk, even in the cool evenings, when we train, we walk, we eat...  you get the general idea. Lol.

First things first, I did say Sawadee Krap to you at the start of the post didn't I?  So I was being polite. Well, beautiful people of Thailand are almost always polite. Everywhere we go, we get a smile back in return. Really! I love it here.  Well, maybe its because us farangs (foreigners) have money..  but mostly because they are simply just..  NICE :P

Nice is one thing oh.. their national pride OTHER than their King and Queen is Muay Thai. And boooooy is it Muay Thai. If you get the right person to discuss Muay Thai with you, be prepared for a short demo and lengthy discussion on the art of boxing and Muay Chaiya.

I am currently over in Khao Lak, Thailand in Rawi Muay Thai Camp for a personal retreat.  I wanted to experience first hand what Muay Thai is in its native and unadulterated form. I am also intrigued by Muay Boran (Chaiya). The krus' (trainers) here are friendly, as down to earth as can be and simply talented in what they do. Fighters all of them! Local and regional champions who have fought in stadiums all over Bangkok, Lupine, Khao Lak..  

I live on the campus. Its a very small maybe 3 football fields big camp which comprises of a training area with 4 rings and a big padded open space, a heated pool, a yoga rest area (currently under construction), a score of bungalows, a nice double storey apartment, and a nice quaint lil cafe (which was unfortunately closed while I was there..  oh well).  They also rent out cars, motor scooters and bicycles. Taxis are easy to call and hire here so travel to the nearest town is easy,  I took the easy way out and rented myself a sccccccooooooottterrrrr!!!! *GRIN

First day I walked a few kilometres out from camp just to get a feel of my surroundings.. and boy did I regret it. Not only did I find nothing of particular interest, other than the fact that I discovered a small village of refurbished houses meant for the victims of the Tsunami, I was soaked from head to toe and hurt all over.

Second day, I hired a scooter. From then on, it was like I was given a free pass to go anywhere! :P

I scooted to town which only took me a few mins this time..  lol..  WOW the wind blowing in the your face..  shiok!  

I came across souvenir stores and also ...yes..  1 miserable MacD's...  Back home we have 3 /4 MacD's serving the same size area.  Meh, things we take for granted back home.

On my 2nd week, I finally found.. YES a supermarket and got myself some healthy food..  like cereals and milk. And also cheese and ham! yum!  I also got wholewheat bread, just in case I got so hungry and decide to dine-in with carbs.

Brb, 2nd cup of coffee....

So.. my thoughts on Muay Thai and Boran so far? Decidedly violent yet refined.  I think I am only qualify to speak my thoughts on Karate... but based on what I have seen, Karate has a certain refinement and character steeped in traditions and discipline.  Muay Thai on the other hand, in the eyes of this newly convert, it is beautiful in its execution and so much is based on its long history of warfare and culture.

The wai-kru for instance is beautiful war dance paying tribute to its past and opponent. So much so, its like a peacock strutting its feathers..  almost as if, the fight has already been won or lost just based on the wai-kru.  Then there is the Muay Thai Boxing itself. For the competition aspect of Muay Thai, gloves are a must and sometimes shin guards (most of the time is without). Speed and brute force. Enough said. It must be my poor understanding of the art because it cannot be just these 2 elements, so I will investigate further in the course of my study and journey to learn the art of Muay Thai Boxing.  Muay Boran, however, is a different animal.  You fight without gloves, but with hand wraps only. The stances are much much lower like, traditional karate. The movements are cat-like but yet stable with wide stances alternating either left or right lead. Hand guard positions resembles combats of old, front hand low, back high. (Karate?)

Ooo, I did my own laundry here as well, the sun dries up my wet stuff really quick so nothing really stinks atm..  ATM.

My weight is going down, stamina is going up, so is strength training..  I am hitting the gym here every other day.  Today I am taking a day off training as I am beginning to feel the effects of training 4 hours of Muay Thai. My ankle was injured somehow...  don't know how, but now its really sore and hard to put weight on it.  

Mai Jap, Mai Jai Muay Thai...

No Pain, No Muay Thai.

~CJ

iLike thoughts on the eve of a major event

22 Apr 2016: 114.1kg

That's it folks... today is the eve of a month-long major training camp. On Saturday, I will embark on another (first) training program aimed at improving my fitness, weight-loss and fight knowledge.

At this age, I will not call it fight SKILLS..as I think I am in the process of slowly losing what I have. Reflexes, stamina, strength. The only things I am accumulating as I age are (not limited to) wrinkles(as little as possible please), money (as much as possible please), experiences, memories (deteriorate slowly) and FATS.

I will attempt to blog if I can from the camp if I find energy left (I will be attempting 4-5 hours a day training).

More details as and when I find out more myself. :P

Now I am sitting down in from of my comp and getting this blog done...

Been recently eyeing (i-ing... get it? get it?) a brand new iMac from the iStore (my faithful and trusty old iMac finally died...age:10 years old). Oh oh and I also crowd funded father.io for a reality fps called inception... and Kaiser for 2 parachute couches..  seriously cool.(Take a look)

Wei.. not scared of getting iSued from iMac ah? *hiak hiak hiak.. (ichoke)(igasp)(DANG! *ifaint)

Here goes.. iLike...

1...dark, gloomy, cold and windy rainy mornings... it always gives me a nice feeling that the world is taking a break... so should I... hee hee

2...morning wood... ahhhhh.... (this one sure kena censored by Pam one..)

3...the smell (snnnnifffff); feel of new karate dogi...

4...cutsie little kittens...

5...the way I feel sandbags caved-in after I kick 'em...

6...the way I feel sandbags caved-in after I punch 'em...

7...the way I feel caved-in after my training sessions...

8...seeing the faces of my kids first thing in the morning when I wake and last thing at night before I sleep...

9...seeing the face of Pam first thing in the morning when I wake and last thing at night before I sleep... *ok ok, maybe not the first thing when I wake lar.. every husband out there knows after a few years of marriage, our wives' face is sometimes the scariest thing to see when we open our eyes... all that droool...eeeeeeee

10...nice fitting shirts and tank tops...

11...the way I can keep eating carbs and stuff and my weight still don't go up.. *THERE YOU GO...WHO SAID NON-CARB DIETS ARE YOYO DIETS?? COME TAKE A LOOK AT ME...

*ahem..but I digress...

12...CabalSEA Online... This is a free-to-play MMORPG game which is pretty addictive...I play a character there called TwilightPard, Blader. Other than playing the game as it was intended, there is another element to it called "humans", pronounced "HUE-MENS", sometimes they are also pronounced "S-HOES". PVP is part of the game whereby players can pit their skills (here means MY LEVEL HIGHER THAN YOURS SO I BULLY AND BEAT YOU SENSELESS) against each other in "Player versus player" duels. Levels not important lar but I think it is the skills and luck of the player that counts. :P The most if I kena bullied in the game, I will get them to come and PVP me in RL (Here means REAL LIFE... and my RL level is super duper high *wink)... and I just bring my buddies along.. (Left & Right fists, Left & Right legs)...heh heh heh heh heh

13...DDO (Dungeons & Dragons Online)... Another free-to-play MMORPG game which is what happens when childhood dream meets modern technology. When I was younger, I used to play sessions and sessions of D&D with my friends, Albert, Shawn, Darren and there is someone else I don't seem to remember his name. Anyway, us few D&D nerds would hunker down in the foyer after school and play for hours.. indulging in dragons, and magic and roguery. *Fondly remembering here and smiling at the computer screen for a few moments. ~Sigh

14...my workout sessions at my studio gym...the way I get muscle tears and soreness after a good workout... *woohooo!

15...my G4 iMac is officially dying...current mac is a 2013 iMacbook Air... another damn cool machine..at the moment I am hooking it up to a 32" TV with HDMI and cool gadgets that enable me to play my (13..13..13..13)...  games :PP

16...my Samsung S6 edge phone...it has become like an attachment to my body already...I worry the day it has to be replaced...eek...

17...my workout attires...but Pam forbids me to go out in some of the shorts because she says they are too "tight"... got such thing one meeeeeeeeh?

18...my friends...because I have very few of them...LOL

19..."COO-MEE-TEH" & KAA-TAA"...if you don't know what they mean...then you don't need to know...LOL

20...i also like brazillian wax...but shy lar so DIY and go for GILLETTE CLOSE SHAVE...wahahahaha

21...taking my own pictures...enuff said...

22...walking in the local shopping malls window shopping and people watching...nice to see life in action...while my wife and kids are living their own lives and have own activities these days...

23...CHEESECAKE!...you know, those with the crushed biscuit base and they serve it in wedges... yummy yummy...

24...travelling...when my business settles down and can run on its own, I want to travel the world and experience what the internet and books cannot teach me...

25...chicken rice...hmmm...for some reason or other, I keep getting this crazy craving for chicken rice... yum yum... There is is store at Katong Shopping Centre.....    *drool...  (wanders away)..


~CJ

Calm after the storm

15 Apr: 115.1kg

Its been almost 1 week since I was down with tonsillitis (infection of the tonsils) was bedridden for 3 days. Most frustrating as I have really just gained momentum in my fitness regime. However, as with anything that we put out mind to... as long as we don't give up hope and try, there will still be a fighting chance.

For almost 10 days.. no coffee..  erggh.. today was my first sip of the Essenso instant coffee (no sugar of course) which I bought from NTUC before my sickness thingy began.

I just wanted to update my blog so as not to lose momentum here as well  ..:P

Been weight lifting again to build those bodyline once my weight has been reduced to a proper proportion. Combined with a proper diet and healthy living, maybe I can beat back the signs of aging... :P

My target fitness weight? 88kg

Doable? Yes. Difficult? Everything starts out with inertia, but once we get past that, nothing is impossible. I am repeating my formula which saw me dropping to my ideal weight a few years ago. If it was doable then, its doable now. Please please dear lord, once I get back there,, please don;t ever let me climb back up to 100kg again...  cannot tahan ah..  *grin

Signing off from my boring post (This morning no inspiration.. rainy morning and right after a heavy weights session)

~CJ

Long road back to fitness

31 Mar: 121.7kg
4 Apr: 116.9kg

They say "When an injured bird with a broken wing dies, it died not of its injury but of its heart and broken will yearning for a sky never to be free again."

My mother told me I had heart murmur when I was young... and all I can do at most is brisk walking...  well a doctor said so. He has since passed away so I cannot prove to him miracles do happen.

My mother passed away peacefully and hopefully painlessly on 4th March this year from terminal pancreatic cancer, it was so fast from the point of discovery, 6th February, (was also when she was warded to TTSH), to the point she passed.  It had taken less than a month.

It was so helpless to watch her slip away everyday, every passing moment was agony. I remember it was the night before the chinese lunar new year like it was yesterday.  It was reunion dinner night.. a night where all the families would gather at a table and have dinner together.  I remember having to attend one such dinner with Pam's side of the family, but all I could think of was my own mother lying alone in the hospital bed.  So I took off and bought a bun. I went upstairs to her ward and caught her awake and alert :P  It was dinner time, so I ate with her. I said, "Ma, chi fan le. Wo men yi qi tuan yuan." She said ok, and we ate by the bedside, our last proper meal together as mother and son.

I used to visit her on Sunday mornings after my wet market shopping to get her groceries for the week, when I could afford it. Sometimes business is bad and my cash flow is low, I cannot really buy anything much, I would just drive there and chat with her. Sometimes I would stay there for hours on end.

After her funeral, I have another uncle, we call him Uncle Kheok Song..  He is my father's elder brother. He died after he had multiple strokes and complications. It has been a few years since he had the strokes. But still, to watch a person's life ebbing away slowly takes its toll.

One morning after the wake, I was walking past a mirror and took a good look at myself..  CMI.

I don't really give a damn how or what other people say or comment how I have gained weight, or waddle while walking..  but I MIND what I think of myself.  CMI.

So I begin. Training starts. Thus I am.

I will write more of my thoughts as my training progresses. Seow asked me if I am interested in a swan song tournament end of next year (2017) in the Philippines.  We shall see..

Signing off~
CJ